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| In terms of championship definition, these are confusing times. It seems that anyone with a Portakabin, Internet access and a fax machine can manufacture the latest sanctioning organization. Of course, rather than recoil at such nuisances, new sanctioning bodies have become to boxing what lingering passers-by are to Jennifer Lopez: if they just hang around long enough, eventually |  © Tom Casino/Showtime |
they’ll be taken in. Further complicating matters in the super middleweight division is the apparent compulsion for its champions to win one of the “reputable” titles and disappear into boxing nothingness. Jeff Lacy entered this disorganized rabble when he won the IBF super middleweight title. A former Olympian, Lacy was fast-tracked to success and is perhaps the only champion at the weight deemed eligible to unify it. In the absence of willingness in his fellow champions, Lacy has gone about the task of defining himself and has created an aura of great power and tenacity. Much more of Lacy’s potential shall reveal itself this weekend when he fights Robin “Grim Reaper” Reid, but if successful, the offerings of the super middleweight division might not be enough to satisfy Lacy’s desire.
If applied to the task, Lacy could become not only the unified super middleweight champion, but perhaps even the definitive model that future pretenders in the division would seek to emulate. Only Joe Calzaghe, who has fought an irrelevant stream of mandatory challengers and whose recent career activity includes being pulled from an insignificant domestic clash with Brian Magee to fight yet another mandatory obligation against Mario Veit, stands in Lacy’s path. That is unless you count Markus Beyer and Mikkel Kessler……I thought not. How intent Lacy is on becoming the true super middleweight champion of the world is debatable. He has already hinted at a move into the middleweight division and with 2000 Olympics teammate Jermain Taylor’s sudden capture of the undisputed middleweight titles, Lacy may not be able to resist the lure of the more glamorous territory.
Taylor achieved his ultimate prize by the skin of his teeth and has much to do to satisfy his critics. He must fend off the immediate challenge of a seething Bernard Hopkins who asserts that Taylor is merely the industry champion, a beneficiary of wayward adjudication. Of course, Hopkins would say as much as his perspective on the way out looks very different from Taylor’s on the way in. Taylor has much to prove, but the weight against him comes not only from the spiteful jibes of the former champion, but from the very real force of that champion’s legacy. Furthermore, not only Hopkins’ legacy obstructs Taylor, but also those of the many great middleweights that preceded them both. As Hopkins walked in the shadow of Hagler, so must Taylor walk in their mighty shadows and look to create one worthy of reverence. Jeff Lacy faces a daunting decision of his own: gatecrash the middleweight division, or take advantage of the fact that so many great fighters by-passed the super middleweight division en route to their destiny. The super middleweight’s lack of lineage leaves it wide open for a fighter to create an indelible impact upon it. Whichever course of action Lacy chooses to follow, he must first deal with Robin Reid.
There are several good reasons why Reid enjoys a reputation as “The Grim Reaper.” Firstly, Reid loves a good scrap. Lacy will tear into the Englishman and unleash some of his most damaging punches, and Reid will not only maintain his posture, but offer back a wicked smile and wave the precocious Floridian back in for more. What will Lacy’s response be when he obliges such invitations repeatedly, only to find the challenger unmoved? Alternatively, the question over Lacy’s punch resistance has yet to be asked. Reid will ask with authority, and when he does, Lacy, Showtime and Gary Shaw might not care for the answer. If any fighter has traded without his share of luck in recent years, it is Reid, and he enters Lacy’s Florida knowing it is the wrong place to hope for a change of fortunes. However, if he does not defeat himself by drifting to his personal Dark Side, Reid may not need luck after all.
To fight Reid at this early stage is a risk for Lacy, but this fight, and his title reign to date reassures us that he is not one to abide danger with trepidation. Lacy is no certainty to win, but the risk also presents opportunity. Of course, to win would be enough for Lacy, but to do so in dramatic fashion, revealing star quality would do much to make him an unmistakable fixture in world boxing and impossible to ignore when the future of the middleweight divisions is decided.
Contact Jim Cawkwell at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk
